This invention relates to a data processing apparatus such as a card reader (a card processing terminal), provided to a gate having an entrance management system or the like, for executing predetermined data processing by receiving an IC card of each passenger.
The entrance management system comprises a management apparatus for unitarily managing information about each passenger, and a card reader for receiving an IC card of each passenger and executing a predetermined data processing to determine whether or not the passenger may enter. In necessity, the card reader transmits identification information to the data management apparatus or vice versa, during the predetermined data processing.
A card reader comprises a MPU for mainly controlling the operation of the card reader; a memory for storing a program for controlling the operation of the MPU; a memory for storing data to be used during the operation of the MPU; an interface (an external interface) between the card reader and an external apparatus such as a data management apparatus; and a card interface for receiving the card inserted by the passenger to read/write information from/in the card.
When the card reader is turned on and the MPU is released from being reset, the MPU reads program/data from a predetermined memory area and operates in accordance with the read program. In this time, the program is stored in a read-only memory (or non-volatile memory in which no data is written during the normal operation), and thus the operation of the card reader is determined when the card is inserted into the card reader. Accordingly, if the user wishes to change the program after the system starts to run, the memory itself must be replaced.
Recently, the program may be changed without changing the memory even after the system is turned on, by reading a new program from the external apparatus via the external interface to write in the memory.
In the conventional information apparatus such as a card reader, however, all the execution programs for determining the operation of the apparatus are stored in a non-volatile memory such as a ROM (including EPROM and EEPROM) wherein all the data are not lost even if the apparatus is turned off. Accordingly, when an execution program is wished to be changed, the non-volatile memory itself must be replaced, or a new program must be rewritten in the memory. The same may be said of the case where only the application part of the program for processing information transmitted between the card reader and the external apparatus is wished to be changed without changing a firmware (i.e., a part of the program for controlling the basic operations of a hardware). Both the replacing and rewriting operations need a long period of time to be performed.
In addition, if the apparatus having such an execution program stored in a non-volatile memory is stolen, the program can be easily analyzed to be used for an illegal object. Such an apparatus thus has a problem in security.